Stay Focused

The Gospel reading for the 1st Sunday of Advent is Matthew 24:36-44. In it, Jesus says, "If the owner of the house had known at what time of night the thief was coming, he would have kept watch and would not have let his house be broken into. So you must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him."
So...how do you stay focused on Jesus in the midst of all the Thanksgiving and Christmas hullabaloo? I just learned that a member of my congregation arrived at church last Sunday morning, looked at the bulletin and saw that we were not singing any of the traditional Thanksgiving hymns, and walked out. I'm such a silly pastor...I thought it was more important to stay focused on the church holy day of Christ the King Sunday than on the secular holiday of Thanksgiving - the day before Black Friday, the kick-off of the Christmas shopping madness. And if this individual had only stayed long enough to hear the announcements, s/he'd have learned of the ecumenical Thanksgiving service to be held on the Wednesday evening before Thanksgiving. That service includes the hymn "Come Ye Thankful People Come."
This is the problem in the USA today. People -even people who call themselves Christians - don't want Jesus. People want "the holiday season" with all the Hallmark trimmings. No matter that you post "Jesus is the reason for the season" on Facebook - if you spend all your time, energy and money on the trappings of the secular season, you're not getting it. Santa Claus has triumphed over the incarnation, and the Easter Bunny has triumphed over the resurrection.
What do you think would happen if all of us who call ourselves Christians forgot about our decorations and shopping and fancy meals and just focused on the birth of Jesus and how he taught us to live? Would this world look a whole lot more like the Kingdom of God?